A wise old friend once taught me that one should always drink the best wine that can be afforded, and if that means just a single glass, then ‘C’est la vie.’
I have tried to follow this sage advice and have paid as much to savour a glass of fine wine than some of the lesser bottles on offer and never once regretted it. However such an investment can be inhibiting. If I am only going to have the one glass I need to be sure that I am going to enjoy it and that tends to lead me to sticking firmly to the nursery slopes, no going off piste for moi.
Despite the many fantastic new world wines I must confess to a slight prejudice towards France when it comes to enjoying a glass of red, which is why my latest find is ….. well, such a find.
Here the staff speak to each other in their Gallic tongue and to their English speaking customers with a thick French accent that immediately has my taste buds on red alert.
The glass frontage allows one to watch the shoppers pass by on their way to who knows where, adding to that cosy feeling that one has escaped the hustle and bustle of a busy metropolis. Despite the windows the overall feeling is cosily dark added to by chocolate brown walls decorated with sepia coloured sheet music, whist in one corner an old piano challenges customers to play a tune.
This typically French experience is reassuringly eclectic and quirky, and the small number of upturned barrels serving as tables ensure that you could only be in one place, a Cave du Vin.
But worry not, you won’t need Eurostar to get you here as this French temple to the grape is but a stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus and Charing Cross Underground Stations.
As someone who, whether by accident or design, likes to move off the beaten track this is hardly somewhere you will stumble across but it so typically bijou and intimate in that unmistakable French way, that it really is worth making the effort to find it.
It is situated parallel to Haymarket in London’s busy West End in the aptly named Royal Opera Arcade immediately behind Her Majesty’s Theatre, that runs between Pall Mall and Charle’s II Street
There is only the one room with 8 or 9 tables but outside the covered arcade allows for additional seating and the supplementary heating means that you can sit outside even in the most extremes of the British climate.
As with any self respecting Cave du Vin some walls are lined with bottles of fine wine. There is something here for everyone from the connoisseur to those wishing to try something not to be found on the supermarket shelf.
The friendly waiting staff are more than happy to advise and take you through the first tasting regardless of if you have popped in for the odd glass or to savour a full bottle.
To accompany the wine one can enjoy platters of delicious cheese, charcuterie or a small bowl of olives sprinkled with pepper.
On occasion, a crackly Edith Piaf gramophone record completes my illusion, that I am tucked away in my favourite Cave du Vin in France pre theatre or post shopping.
The wine is not cheap, but what you save on a trip Paris you can spend on a glass of wine in fact a bottle may well be in order, given the good advice of my wise friend.
http://pallmallfinewine.co.uk/la-cave-de-lopera/